Violence has erupted across the UK since a knife attack at a Taylor Swift-themed holiday club in Southport last week left three young girls dead and several children and adults seriously injured.
The string of violent protests began with a riot on Tuesday in the Merseyside town, roughly 20 miles from Liverpool.
Disorder erupted in towns and cities across England and Northern Ireland on Saturday, after violent protests in London, Manchester and Hartlepool last week drew condemnation from MPs across the political spectrum.
The violence has been linked to the far right, and 378 people have so far been arrested across the country.
A number of experts have raised concerns about the rising levels of misinformation spreading on social media, which they warn is being used by political activists to stoke divisions and tension.
Protests advertised online have called for participants to bring England flags, while a number of posts have contained phrases such as “enough is enough”, “save our kids” and “stop the boats”.
Here, we look at some of the misinformation that has been shared online...
Incorrect name of suspect shared online
Shortly after the Southport knife attack, an incorrect name for the suspected attack was shared online.
The suspect has now been named as 17-year-old Axel Rudakubana.
But before his name was confirmed by police, he was incorrectly named as an asylum seeker named “Ali Al-Shakati”, in misleading posts on X, Facebook, and TikTok which said he arrived in Britain by boat in 2023.
X user Bernie Spofforth, whose handle is @Artemisfornow, shared the name to her more than 40,000 followers.
Merseyside Police was forced to issued a warning over the spreading online of the “incorrect” name, and the false story around his background.
False claims suspect was a migrant
Some social media users were quick to claim Rudakubana had recently migrated to the UK, and that he had arrived in Britain by boat in 2023.
This is incorrect.
Rudakubana, who turns 18 on Wednesday, was born in Cardiff to Rwandan parents.
He had been living in the village of Banks, just outside Southport, at the time of the attack.
False claims suspect is Muslim
Claims the suspect was Muslim led to anti-Islamic backlash. The first far-right protest that broke out following the Southport killings happened in Southport itself, a day after the attack.
Merseyside Police said “a large group of people – believed to be supporters of the English Defence League” – began to throw items such as bricks towards a mosque in the seaside town at about 7.45pm.
Rudakubana is in fact believed to have a Christian background.
Neighbours said the family are “heavily involved with the local church”, and that they would often hear singing from their house, the Liverpool Echo reported.
Despite this, hundreds of mosques have felt forced to toughen their security and protective measures ahead of far-right rallies across the country, the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) has said, amid fears more Islamic places of worship could be targeted during demonstrations.
Police have warned that further violence is likely in the coming days, while the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) has promised a “united and robust policing response”.
Farage claimed police ‘withholding’ truth
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage shared a video on X last Tuesday in which he questioned “whether the truth is being withheld from us” following the Southport attack, which had happened just a day earlier.
In the video, he told his two million followers he had “one or two questions” as he speculated about whether the stabbing suspect was being monitored by security services.
“I just wonder whether the truth is being withheld from us,” he said. “I don’t know the answer to that, but I think it is a fair and legitimate question.”
There has not been any suggestion the suspect was previously known to police, or that he was being monitored.
The real reason he was initially not named is because of his age. Automatic UK reporting restrictions ban the media from naming suspects of crimes when they are below the age of 18.
At Liverpool Crown Court on Thursday, Judge Andrew Menary KC decided not to impose reporting restrictions to keep the defendant’s identity anonymous, saying: “Continuing to prevent the full reporting has the disadvantage of allowing others to spread misinformation, in a vacuum.”
Newly-elected MP Mr Farage was strongly criticised for his speculation.
Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner said Mr Farage, as an MP, has “a level of responsibility”, “and it’s not to stoke up what conspiracy theories or what you think might have happened”.
“We have a responsibility to hold the community together and say let’s get the facts, and then let’s look at what the actual solutions are and what we can do about the horrific situation that we find ourselves in, not to stir up these fake news online,” she said.
Brendan Cox, husband of murdered MP Jo Cox, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme Mr Farage’s remarks were “right out of the Trump playbook” and make him “nothing better than a Tommy Robinson in a suit”.
A number of experts said misinformation is being used by a “vocal minority” to sow division and “fuel their own agenda and trigger a summer of thrill-seeking impulsive insurrection”.
John Coxhead, a professor of policing at Staffordshire University, said groups were being “cynically stirred up by opportunistic populists with nothing better to do”.
